movie watching has become an expensive interest. sure the lobbies are glitzy and the seats less smelly, but the pop-corn reeks of blood. that's bound to happen when u pay through the nose.
so when a friend messages with an unsolicited tip, "Delhi-6 is disappointing", the heart sinks. am thrown into a dilemma. saving money and time or taking an expensive risk. how bad could it be? after making rang de basanti, can a man settle down to make a "disappointing" movie? i didn't see aks, but have heard of it to be brilliant in its own right. it cant be that bad, told the friend "tujhe samajh me nahi aaya hoga", and cut the conversation short. in a way he has done the worst thing a man can do. spread hatred. i hate him now for maligning Delhi-6. after i see it, which i will, i ll hate him more for it or hate myself i didn't heed to his well-meaning advice. i am sure he is not aware of the dark character he has come to be with one message.
this is not the first time though. ever since i became poor, i 've been really choosy about where i pay to watch. but after DCH, lakshya, don and rock on, i unsuspectingly walked into luck by chance. and came back feeling really guilty of spending hard earned (harder to get out of clients) money on it, in these times of recession. the movie wasn't too bad, only if it didn't cost me any money. and not exactly so bad that i would seethe in anger over wasted time. or mayb thats what recession is about, lots of time and little money. anyways its the kind you wait for to release on DVD, that some stupid friend will buy and loan it to you. and return it too. but then, i ll be salivating again on farhan akhter's next release. he is god.
yesterday i saw what everybody had watched already, slumdog millionaire. its been so watched in fact that PVR is playing musical chairs with it. fitting it whichever timeslot they can every week. now if the movie is old enough to be played musical chairs with, and only 10% of the seats get filled, you would expect it to be discounted right? wrong. they will still charge u 200 for a seat and 40 for samosa. this is a bloody rip off. bloody. just like the pop corn. no wonder u never see a manager in the lobby these days. when i was younger and went to see 'pictures' in 'theaters', we knew the omnipresent gentleman in the lobby wasn't there to watch a movie, he was the manager, his face glowing in pride that so many people enjoyed the movie at 25 rupees, the samosa at 7 and the popcorn was a cheerful yellow in only one flavor. the cheerful yellow.
about the movie, slumdog millionaire.. ahem.. hmm.. nice while it lasted. quite like luck by chance. not bad u know. luck by chance shud be sent for Oscars too. after all, its luck by chance....the theme for both the movies. though Danny Boyle tried to convince me in the end that, its written. probably meant Q&A. yeah that was written. i guess he knows how some films are made. they are not written. like..... sob.. sob.. chandni chowk to china. yes yes, i saw that too. but under extra ordinary circumstances, i cant reveal. to be fair, i really went with a very low expectation and a large heart, but failed miserably. it didnt work. i swallowed my sorrow but could not escape the tragedy of the guys in the next seats, they were the hera pheri and phir hera pheri types ;-).
but then midweek i was lucky, luck by chance. no.. i am talking about DevD. i was sad when the movie ended. that it had to end. a visual treat. the story of devdas adapted brilliantly to modern times. and breaking a few cliches. opening new grounds. not having read the original novel, i used Wikipedia for a brief idea. the last line read, "The novella powerfully depicts the prevailing societal customs in Bengal in the early 1900s, which are largely responsible for preventing the happy ending of a genuine love story." thats brilliant. the movie totally replaces the customs of twentieth century with those of the twenty first, where parental opposition rings hollow, the widower loves the new wife paro, paro meets dev one more time but only to show his aukat (when he makes those unsolicited calls), and dev returns to life when the ATM dries up after the BMW accident and death of his father. and there is a happy ending. we live in the times, where theres no romance in tragedy anymore.
tragedy is watching chandni chowk to china.... comprehendo?
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